Welcome, film-lovers

Well hello there everyone and welcome to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MOVIE ART BLOG!

If you're here it's not by accident! I have either sent the address to you directly or I've lured you here by baiting a link somewhere else! ;)

Regardless of the delivery method, it is excellent to have you here to witness the genesis of my little,.....exercise? Experiment? Perhaps it's a little bit of both!

"What the heck is this?" You may be asking yourself and it's a fair question. This is the end result of something that started out as an artistic exercise and grew into a tiny movement but the concept behind it is simple enough.

What if some of the greatest films of all time had been ANIMATED rather than LIVE ACTION?

And I mean from Citizen Kane all the way up to Oh Brother Where Art Thou and everything inbetween. The reason behind this seemingly useless exercise is simply an attempt in artistic growth.

In my chosen career, (very blessed), as an artist, (storyboard/writing), historically, I have been given all the material I need to do my job before I even start drawing!

I'd get prop model sheets, backgrounds, color sketches, character designs, you name it, before I ever put pencil to paper! Now after fifteen years of this I felt,....rusty.

Artistically fat and lazy is what I felt and I thought if I am ever going to produce/write/draw my own material, (books, graphic novels, prints), I needed to get off my duff and learn how to do all the stuff that I was getting handed to me.

I needed to know how to replicate textures, create lighting effects, blend and contrast color palletes, draw backgrounds, cars, props, characters, buildings, cities!......I thought,..."This is sounding a LOT like work."

Now I KNOW me and if it was already starting to feel like homework and I REALLY needed to see this one through so I started searching for a pastry to wrap this pill in!

Enter the film angle! Now I am a maniac when it comes to movies. I love damn near all of em' and even some of the horrendous ones, (That's right, Showgirls, I'm lookin' at you), and I thought,...well I don't feel like drawing just a boring old city but what if it was KONG on the Empire State? What if it wasn't some boring old textbook town square but Hill Valley in 1955? What if it wasn't simply a dark room but Vito Corleone's study?

What would animated versions of these characters look like? Quint from Jaws? George Bailey? The "Dude"? Ralphie Parker?

What about The Ghostbusters Firehouse or Delta House or even Marion Ravenwood's tavern in the freezing mountains of Nepal?.....The Freeling's house from Poltergeist?

NOW I was INTERSTED! The great films of our age are the best teachers of composition, staging, lighting and the purveyors of all manner of lush visual concotions that create moving paintings on canvases of light.

Now THAT is something I wouldn't have a problem staying interested in but where to start?

So I went deep into my childhood well, (those that know me know I didn't have to go TOO deep), and I picked a film that is very close to my heart and very big in my head. A film that first gave me a taste of that same intangible magic that I've been trying to find my own version of ever since.

It needs no introduction, it has no rivals and you'll be seeing a great many more pieces inspired by this film in,.....the future. ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon!





Venkman71